Socceroos skipper Mile Jedinak is in doubt for Tuesday’s crunch World Cup qualifier against Jordan with a sore thigh.

The Crystal Palace midfielder started in last week’s 7-0 demolition of Adelaide and scored a penalty in the first 15 minutes, but was replaced by Mark Milligan at half-time.

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Coach Ange Postecoglou revealed the 31-year-old pulled up with a sore thigh, and he did not train with the team at Kogarah Oval on Sunday.

Jedinak will link up with team-mates for a session on Monday, when Postecoglou will decide whether to risk him at Allianz Stadium, in a match the Socceroos must either win or draw to finish top of their group and guarantee progress to the final phase of qualifying.

“He’s still not 100%, he got a bit of a niggle,” Postecoglou said. “It’s nothing serious, but because the games are so close we’ll have a look at him closely. The plan is he’ll train tomorrow, and if he gets through training he’ll be fine. He’s the only one who’s got a little bit of a doubt.”

Should Jedinak not be deemed fit, Milligan is the most obvious replacement. However it highlights Australia’s midfield depth that there are barely enough spots for Aaron Mooy, Tom Rogic and Massimo Luongo to be on the field at the same time.

Postecoglou said he planned to make at least two or three changes against Jordan, with well-rested Tim Cahill a good bet to start as striker in place of debutant Apostolos Giannou, and in-form Rogic also pressing his case with a brace against Tajikistan.

In a potentially worrying omen, a hamstrung Jedinak was also missing in the Socceroos’ shock 2-0 loss to Jordan in Amman last October – Australia’s only defeat in this qualifying phase.

But Postecoglou was confident his squad had taken big enough leaps since then to force a different result this time.

“On that day I made the conscious decision to try and expose the players I thought needed that sort of game in that environment,” he said. “Mile was missing, I left Timmy and Alex Wilkinson out and Maty Ryan wasn’t playing.

“So for a lot of the guys who were out there it was not just the nervousness of now being in the Australian team, it was the nervousness around now playing in that sort of environment. But we had to do it, and we grew and learnt from that.”

Postecoglou has been tracking Jordan’s progress in recent months, and was unconcerned about what temporary coach Harry Redknapp would bring to the team in his less than a week in charge.

“Every time there’s a change of coach there’s always a little bit of a sharpening of the focus for everyone involved,” he said. “But in international football, in terms of what you can actually do to the team it’s very limited. I don’t expect to see too much change to the way they play.”